Friday, July 7, 2017

Constructor: Andy Kravis

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME:none

Word of the Day: RIENZI (47A: Title Roman tribune of an early Wagner opera) —

Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen (Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes; WWV 49) is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name (1835). The title is commonly shortened to Rienzi. Written between July 1838 and November 1840, it was first performed at the Hofoper, Dresden, on 20 October 1842, and was the composer's first success. // The opera is set in Rome and is based on the life of Cola di Rienzi (1313–1354), a late medieval Italian populist figure who succeeds in outwitting and then defeating the nobles and their followers and in raising the power of the people. Magnanimous at first, he is forced by events to crush the nobles' rebellion against the people's power, but popular opinion changes and even the Church, which had urged him to assert himself, turns against him. In the end the populace burns the Capitol, in which Rienzi and a few adherents have made a last stand. (wikipedia)

• • •

BIB! (24D: Lobster catcher?). Where was this clue *yesterday*, when I needed it!?

This puzzle is, by and large, gorgeous. The kind of puzzle that I was admiring mid-solve, the kind of puzzle where I'm nodding along like there's a great summer song on the radio. Wide-ranging, surprising, impeccably clued. I am never going to think INSTA or PEAT is great fill, but those damned clues had me actually *enjoying* INSTA (18A: Photo app, slangily) and PEAT (14D: Three follower, in sports). I look forward to the Further Adventures of Insta & Peat. I also love a puzzle that can go very high (brow) ... RIENZI wtf!? (47A: Title Roman tribune of an early Wagner opera) ... and then dive right down and buzz the control tower ... VAGUEBOOKS wtf!? (31A: Posts an intentionally mysterious status update on social media) ... and do so in a way that allows me to appreciate all of it: crosses fair, answer parts inferrable. Proper nouns properly handled, crosswordese minimal, and minimalistically clued. A very nice way to wake up (I'm doing the puzzle upon waking today, instead of promptly at 10pm, because yesterday was filled with a two-hour ice cream tour of Binghamton, with many failed attempts to track down the "popular" RUM RAISIN flavor (from yesterday's grid), and many successful purchases of RUM RAISIN alternatives—basically I had six kinds of ice cream for lunch ... and so later, after watching my wife get sworn in as the newest member of the school board ... got very sleepy ... like out-before-nine sleepy ... and so this puzzle was the perfect cure for my ice cream hangover. Speaking of: I am issuing a RUM RAISIN challenge. Is RUM RAISIN truly "popular" in your neck of the woods? Can you even find RUM RAISIN where you live? Does it exist? If you are so inclined, please go in search of RUM RAISIN in the next couple of days and send me a picture of yourself eating (or Refusing to eat) it. Tweet me at @rexparker or just send it to my rexparker at icloud address. I'll post the results of Rum Raisin Quest 2017 (#RRQuest2017) in Sunday's write-up.)

Some other puzzle—possibly a different (i.e. not yesterday's) Erik Agard puzzle?—prepped me for "MOONLIGHT" (which I still haven't seen), and its new-clue-for-ALI actor (6D: Mahershala ___, Best Supporting Actor for 17-Across). Forgot the actor's name, remembered the movie ... which gave me the actor's name. That was the answer that dug me out of an early hole—the French textile city hole. When you do way too many crosswords, the European textile city reflex is LILLE. Or it is for me, anyway. Yes, here's a nice wikipedia paragraph about LILLE: "The 16th and 17th centuries were marked by a boom in the regional textile industry, the Protestant revolts, and outbreaks of the Plague." But at least I knew NÎMES existed. That helped. Had RISK-TAKER before RISK-PRONE (which is my bad, as the clue clearly calls for an adjective, not a noun) (12D: Like someone who invests in volatile stocks). Realized I'm not actually that familiar with TOP CAT (49A: Hanna-Barbera feline), despite getting the answer pretty easily. I'm more familiar with the slew of other cartoon felines, your Sylvesters and your Snagglepusses and your Pink Panthers and your Toms and such. Only solving snags of note involved proper nouns (shocker)—RIENZI and MARA (I know Rooney, I do not know Kate) (54D: Actress Kate of "House of Cards"). Just a delightful solving experience, overall. One final ovation for the cluing, please. BOT! (42D: What may have a strong net effect?) NO-FLY ZONES! (27D: Dimension without planes). Just great.

95
comments:

Well, here's a puzzle that moves @Rex into paroxysms of praise! That's a welcome change.

I enjoyed this Andy Kravis effort and managed to work my way through it in spite of a couple of WTF's (VAGUEBOOKS and RIENZI).

And I liked the return of BIB with a great clue.

OFL is calling for a poll of RUMRAISIN eaters/noneaters. I think this was pretty well exhausted yesterday. All you have to do is recap the comments. For the record, I have occasionally enjoyed it, but it's pretty hard to find in my area.

Finally a not-so Freaky Friday. I used to love the TOP CAT cartoon. I knew RIENZI right off the bat because it features my favorite Wagner overture, a true "SET PIECE" of many an orchestra concert. Listen to James Levine's performance of it, if you can find it on YouTube. I've been to NIMES but never knew it was a textile city. It's better known for its handsome Roman amphitheatre. And the Maison Carrée. A magnificent "manse" sans moss.

Great puzzle.And as for Rum Raisin: It was occasionally served for dessert in my college dorm, back when college dining wasn't all central commissaries. We thought the kitchen got a special price on it and despite having a ravenous adolescent appetite, I skipped it.

Good puzzle, very Friday, and an excellent review -- and not just because it was a positive review. RISK-PROof before RISK-PRONE I figured someone really, really rich could afford to make a bad bet). RUM RAISIN is available on Martha's Vineyard, but not in every shop. As I posted yesterday, I can't find the similar, but better, frozen pudding. The witness protection program will not permit me to post my picture.

Yes, this is a lovely puzzle. I was flying through it until I bogged down in the E/SE. I kept wanting ALLstAr[something] for Kobe, dropped in fOrGe for the blacksmith, couldn't see TOPCAT because of that mistaken F, took forever to recognize "club" as a sandwich (great clue, that), and basically guessed at the MANSE / ELSA cross (albeit not too many other possibilities there).

A few things were unfamiliar to me -- VAGUEBOOKS, TITTLE, RIENZI, ELSA, "Mosses from an Old MANSE" -- but all gettable via crosses.

NOFLYZONES looks great.

What are the odds that two entries could share a N-ILS--ON pattern? Pretty long, I imagine.

"Moonlight" is a beautiful film. I loved it. Mahershala ALI is fabulous and deserving of his Oscar, but I thought Naomie Harris was even better.

I was off by a year and had Spotlight in for MOONLIGHT for too long! Other than that gaffe, an enjoyable puzzle, although I did get hung up on the crossing of EDEMA and ADUE. Maybe I'll remember them next time they come around...

"The term, a portmanteau of the words three and repeat, originated with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, during their unsuccessful campaign for a third consecutive championship during the 1988–89 season, having won the previous 2 NBA Finals in 1987 and 1988 against the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, but were swept by the Pistons in the 1989 NBA Finals. The term is a registered trademark owned by Pat Riley, the Lakers' head coach from 1981–1990, although it was coined by L.A. player Byron Scott immediately after their victorious championship defense against the Detroit Pistons in the 1988 NBA Finals."~Wikipedia

Great puzzle indeed, with a self deprecating laugh regarding win, lose or draw. Game theory? Philosophy? I was all over the map until I ran the alphabet on "erb" and nearing the end ...voila! Ole. Out of the rut I was in.

Not easy here, mostly due to the SW and mostly due to me confusing the Oregon Ducks with the OSU BEAVERS. That mix-up made me think I was looking for whatever name the mascot was given. But, no, I'm just another guy looking for BEAVER.*

My other mistake was another self-inflicted delay. De NÎMES, from NÎMES. D'oh. Started with Lyons in that space which is so wrong on so many levels.

@evil doug - Ah, yes, the 1988 championship won on a moving pick call against Bill Laimbeer. Both the '88 Finals and '91 Eastern Conference Finals losses can easily be cited as evidence that the league didn't much want the Pistons to win. I don't actually subscribe to that theory, but rather to the pretty obvious notion that the refereeing in basketball has a bigger impact on outcomes than in any other sport.

Very enjoyable. It was pretty easy, except in a couple of spots, but it was never boring. And I was thrilled, thrilled by the lack of PPP, ugly acronyms, and other junky fill. Some thoughts:

Where were you yesterday, clue for BIB, when I really, really needed you?

You cannot imagine my feeling of relief when I read the clue for 20A and realized that ARM didn't fit.

Had RISK TAKER before RISK PRONE. Must go back and find out if anyone else did likewise.

Thought the clues for MAYO, NO FLY ZONES, BOT and RUT were great.

VAGUE BOOKS is a VERB??? What in the name of...??? It seems that contemporary Internet culture has produced a generation so 8D that it's almost like an entirely new species with an entirely alien TONGUE. But at least VAGUE BOOKS is not one of the awful text-speak acronyms, so I guess I should be grateful for small favors. Anyway, aside from that, I really liked this puzzle.

Agreed. Great puzzle. This shows that it is still possible to create well-clued, challenging, intellectually interesting, non-gimmicky puzzles and publish them in the NYT. Reminds me of the much- (and wrongly) maligned Maleska era. May that era come again.

This was fun, and after solving the first third I knew the rest would be as fun as the beginning -- worth savoring. The joy came from the cluing. I like the cross of MOONLIGHT and IVORY, and love the clues for NO_FLY_ZONES and MAYO. Just a lovely, lovely solve that made me feel good about getting, and even good about being alive!

Played medium for us, and we'll agree with @Rex most of y'all that it was a dandy.

Delightful misdirect at 27D, I was searching for an answer from the space time continuum until NOFLYZONES nearly filled. How about "Thimble Theater" in a clue? Neat. "Aimee" the clue instead of the answer, nice change. We got ferdorkled for far too long by the VERB clue. Love the clues for MAYO and BOT. And in the "learn something every day" department - I always gave credit for the term denim to Levi Strauss.

RoENZI, REENZI (nope), RaENZI (my first guess), RIENZI (looks promising), RuENZI: That's what is written on the side of my solving sheet. With RaENZI in but not feeling right, I decided to rethink it - I was getting tired of my daily DNF. TITTLE titillated the proper synapses so no sad confessions from me today. OLÉ!

Except for wanting "day trader" (never written in) at 12D and having written in PunT for "three follower, in sports", this puzzle went by pretty smoothly. While I SIFTed for a better answer, I put in Seek as a place holder at 55D. But I got NO FLY ZONES off the F (with a guess of ERIc, ERIk or ERIN at 26A providing the inspiration) so I'm sticking my TONGUE out at yesterday's massacre (my execution of it, anyway). I'm sure I'm not ALONE.

After yesterday's total debacle, this was a pleasure. I agree with QuasiMojo about Rienzi, which was based on Bulwer Lytton's novel of the same name, a book it took me forever to finally finish. And B-L is the author of the greatest opening line in literature, "It was a dark and stormy night." He also coined the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword." Not too bad for an author who is almost totally unremembered today.

Hey All !I don't share Rex's enthusiasm for this puz. Funny, usually I do like most puzs that Rex just destroys in his write-ups. Today's he likes, where I found it kind of a cluster.

VAGUE BOOKS?? What in tarhooties is that? Aimee ANOUK? Think I maybe heard that name that one time in that movie. . . Very off (to me) clue on ENFORCING. Writeovers aplenty, ALLstar____- ALLteamusa- ALLNBATEAM, white-IVORY, pesO(?)-EURO, pot-BIB, BaT-BOT, gracE-IRENE, ROSElyn-ROSERED.

And who is TOPCAT? I was an avid cartoon watcher in my youth and don't know that one.

MOONLIGHT also sorta kinda rungs a (faint) bell. Haven't read the comments yet, but hoping no one says "Didn't that win 2017's Best Picture?" Cause y'all know we've had the year-film discussion aplenty.

Really liked this one even though I misread 1A as "filling station" and immediately wrote "white" for 3D!!!! Once I replaced Spotlight withMOONLIGHT (and reread that clue) I was in good shape. Loved TOPCAT and could still sing along with the intro!!

Here in Concord, MA (Hello, Wm. C!) we have no fewer than three great ice cream parlors/stands (Reasons to Be Cheerful, Eriksons, and Bedford Farms) and not one sells Rum Raisin--or has in recent memory.

This was surprisingly easy for a Friday, with the exception of RIENZI, TITTLE (nifty new word for me), and VAGUEBOOKS.

Easy and enjoyable. (De) NIMES x EURO gave me my start, and the gird unfurled from top to bottom, with a snag half way down, where I had no idea about VAGUEBOOKS. I had to scan the down the clues until RIENZI's Z gave me what I needed for NO FLY ZONES (loved that one). ROSE RED was lovely to see.

I knew TITTLE previously as the partner of "jot." Besides Yelberton Abraham, of course.

RISK PRONE led nicely into AT A PRICE. I also liked the mossy "OLE" MANSE.

I generally like themeless, and this one was fun. One quibble- VAGUEBOOKS? I've spent a lot of time on social media and have never run up against that one before. I was trying to make it SUBTWEETS but alas, no luck. What else is there? GHOSTGRAMS? SNEAKPINS? WHISPERCHAT? WEAKLINKS?

Supermarkets only sell popular stuff due to limited shelf space. (Except when helping manufacturers test the popularity of new products. Some new flavors in my supermarket being currently tested for flavored seltzered water.) So why doesn't everyone check out whether your supermarket carries rum raisin ice cream the next time you go. If most do, it must be popular.

Kind of funny that todays puzzle received a very favorable review here (odd as that is) while Jeff Chen was fairly grumpy. Go figure.

This was about a minute faster than yesterday's solve which makes it average for a Friday. Rather than being stymied by a final square, today I had trouble moving out of the NE corner where I started. I thought LAGS was BOTS and BOT was LOB. I recognized GOYA immediately but not MAYO. After much wasted time I skipped ahead to FYI and NOFLYZONE and the rest became Wednesday easy. RIENZI and TITTLE had to go in from the crosses but that didn't amount to a speed bump. It was definitely a nice looking late week puzzle just too much user friendly material. I know BIB reappearing was just a coincidence but it sure looked like someone was getting their chain yanked.

@Roo...Her name is ANOUK Aimee. I bet you've heard of La Dolce Vita or, perhaps, A Man and a Woman? Fantastic actress. You need to leave Vegas for a while.;-)I thought this was OK. Nothing more. I enjoyed it but I wouldn't sing to the heavens. I had a few hangups but overall it was pretty easy for moi.Had VAGUE Bites because I don't know what a VAGUE BOOK is. BEST BUY was the hardest for me. Don't ask me why but I wanted something like Beelzebub. What a way to clue the magnificent GOYA. Velazquez is the renown court painter. If you ask what GOYA is known for it would be his "Caprichos." He only painted Carlos IV because he was hungry. Further, why Charles even appointed him is a mystery since GOYA made a mockery of the portraits. Hand up for RISK Taker and loving the clue for MAYO.Wanted to squeeze in FELIX for the TOP CAT. Happy I got the BEVER.@Jackj...How about "Schweddy Balls"?

Fortunately, I've attended a concert performance of RIENZI -- or rather, I attended half of it. The damn thing is 5 hours long, and I left at intermission; not that I didn't enjoy it, just that I was falling asleep. I still regret the decision, as the star aria is in the second half.

Were it not for that chance familiarity, and that "Mosses from an Old MANSE" is one of the Hawthorn cards in "Authors," which we used to play at my grandmother's house (she was from the era when church-going Protestants didn't play cards, so they played other games, like "Authors" or "Pit," the worked just like cards), this would have been a lot tougher. As it was the MAD TV/MARA cross was just a lucky guess -- MoRA looked just as good to me.

VAGYEBaitS before VAGUEBOOKS (@Nancy, it's a verb because 'Facebook,' meaning to post something on FB, is a verb), ane ALL-star before SALL-NBA (but knew it was wrong, as one letter too many. And I wanted that needle to go under or in the SKIn, making it hard to see PEAT.

A fine puzzle, just the right amount of challenge -- although DNF in the end because I had ROsE UP and didn't think enough about how IsOS didn't make sense.

@Rex, to elaborate on what 4 others have said already,the clue for 1D says 'gave us the word "denim."' That's all you need.

NAIL SALON was my first thought and luckily it worked. Plus MOONLIGHT was a gimme so the NW went very quickly.

The RIENZI/TITTLE cross was a guess but what else could it be.

ALL star wouldn't fit, ALL pro wouldn't work with the crosses, so ALL NBA it had to be. My attention span for B-Ball is limited.

VAGUE BOOKS was a WOE. If it's a Facebook term my millennial grandkids probably won't know it as they eschew Facebook. Twitter on the other hand... Just checked with the granddaughter, she had not heard of it.

"Heavens to Murgatroyd" came to mind at one point but that was Snagglepuss.

I would have been OK if I had known MOONLIGHT and MANSE and RIENZI. I didn't and put down "risk taker" before RISKPRONE to boot. NOFLYZONE was indeed perfect and I got it from the ALL (?) TEAM and the FYI answer.

Of course being a West Coaster who roots for Stanford and Cal every fall, I knew BEAVER at once. I have always wondered if they considered a name change back in the days when your major cities had old theaters that specialized in "beaver flicks". Hunting for "beaver" in that sense seems a little strange, but there is a great old folk song where the hero gets out his sporting gun to hunt for the "Bonny Black Hare." Worth seeking out on YouTube!

I never cease to be amazed that GOYA was a court painter, given his revolutionary themes. But he was, and as a result the Prado in Madrid has an outstanding collection of his works. Madrid is in its way as great a city to visit as Paris, and way cheaper.

I love a puzzle that teaches me something new like the origin of denim and tittle.Never cared for Hanna-Barbera cartoons even though I watched them.Internet annoyances? Too many to list.Nail salon took awhile since it started as mail _____.Surprised to see Rose Red, always in the background behind Snow White.

Oh, I should add if you ever are in France, Nimes has a *complete* Roman house (originally a temple) the Maison Carree'. By "complete" I mean it has the original walls and outer columns and has always had a roof, which has been replaced as needed over the centuries. Plus it has one of the best preserved Roman arenas in Europe. Worth a visit, and easy to visit too as it is on the direct TGV line from Paris to the South of France.

Yes, great puzzle. And I'm glad to learn "I" dot TITTLE, and surprised I didn't know it. But I'm surprised that no one mentioned what I think is bad cluing for 64A Furniture and such onstage SETPIECES. That's just not what SETPIECES means. SET PIECES are distinct, carefully and often elaborately produced, memorable parts of movies usually, like car chases or dance numbers.

Now, in fairness, I did find the following, unknown to me despite my experience acting in and directing plays:

Set Piece: Theater. a piece of scenery used as part of a stage set, as a profile or three-dimensional construction built to stand independently on the stage floor: A few set pieces simulating rocks and a fence constituted the scenery for the first act.

But that definition does not include chairs. Simply a piece of a set does not make something a SETPIECE, any more than a tooth is a mouthpiece, or six and two are pieces of eight.

@RP: yo. Raisin' the RUMRAISIN issue again? Alrightee, then.. As of last night. Cold Stone Creamery ain't got it. The guy did say that he could go ahead and come mighty close, by addin raisins to whatever other flave we picked, if we BYOB-ed the rum. That'd make quite a photo op.

* VAGUEBOOKS. Learned somethin new and probably worthless, but got this sucker from the crosses. No BIB/RIB dilemma, today. Sooo … ok, on test #2. Lost alarmin amount of precious nanoseconds, tho.

* T?TTLE/R?ENZI. This came down to a one in five shot, for the M&A. When in doubt, I guesses U. Not today, M&A breath. Flamed out my bonus solvepoints, on test #3.

Had ????AB at 22-Across, and was driven nuts tryin to come up with the NASA project. Eventually, rescued by LINOLEUM. Which floored m&e, that I hadn't already thought of SKYLAB. M&A's brain cells are slowly turnin to rumraisin, I reckon ...

staff weeject pick: BOT. Mainly becuz it has a clue that was too hot for M&A to handle. All I know is I BOT the farm, understandin what that clue was all about.

Thanx, Mr. Kravis. Fun and feisty rodeo, but that one cross RUENZI-ed m&e.

Beautiful puzzle, but on the hard side for me, based solely on my time. I hate the timer in Across Lite and usually turn it off before I start solving, but today I didn't. I only turned it off at my standard Friday PB1 puzzle time * 1.2 when I was less than halfway through.

As for Rum Raisin, the internet isn't good for anything if it's not good for random lists, and it acquitted itself quite nicely for ranking ice cream flavors. An exhaustive search, where in this case 'exhaustive' means until Pete got bored, of [rank ice cream flavors], Rum Raisin only showed up twice in the lists. Once was a listing of all flavors offered by Bassets Ice Cream where it came in 25th, just ahead of Peach. The other was the 10 worst flavors on Huff Post, where it ranked #8, just behind Licorice.

Excellent Friday puzzle. Thanks, AK. Familiarity with the Geek Squad got me connected in the SW, and I worked up from there, enjoying excellent cluing all the way. Write-overs, though, on SEEM for SIFT, and ALL PRO for NBA til I came to my senses (even before the crosses). In the NE, luckily caught my misread of "Filing" and the AI in the downs gave me a quick NAIL SALON to start the section. VAGUE BOOKS a new one on me, too (first mentally tried BOAST and BOOST, which of course didn't work with OYL or NETWORKING). An all-around satisfying solve. Happy Friday, all.

FYI, I think that there is a difference between RISK takers and the RISK PRONE. Life would not be living without taking some RISKs even if that sometimes does come AT A PRICE.

@Anonymous 11:50 am, I'm surprised you didn't object to the TONGUE and the STRAPS accompanying the BEAVER in the Puzzle.

@Sir Hillary, TMI alert, don't read further.

@Tim Aurthur, yes absolutely someone does buy it, especially when Rex Parker effectively double dog dares us to find it and show a picture of ourselves eating or not eating it. I actually eat ice cream only about once a year and I just had an artisanal strawberry ice cream sandwich on the HighLine with my sister last week when she was visiting me. Since Rex threw down the gauntlet (and the ice cream sandwich was unworthy of its artisanal label), I am going to double down on my annual ice cream quota. I just discovered with 10 seconds of effort that Emack and Bolio's has RUM RAISIN on the menu. Then I am going to make up for it by going to the gym this afternoon and fight club tomorrow even though I went to BJJ this morning. That's how much I love RUM RAISIN.

I'd like to see a puzzle where Mahershala ALI marries Mahala Yousafzi ...

By the way, ALI also was the courtly soldier love interest in "Hidden Figures" (dreadfully titled but good film about the unappreciated women at NASA)

I saw them back to back and couldn't figure out why he looked so familiar... It's quite the Daniel Day Lewis trick ("My Beautiful Launderette" as gay punk and uptight English gentleman prig in "A Room with a View") to appear in two Oscar nominated films that were relatively small, playing wildly different characters and sort of burst onto the scene!Now in the NYT puzzles no less.

I learned the whole "de Nimes" thing from another puzzle, maybe even this blog so am surprised that that threw so many folks... It threw me at the beginning bec I thought that was like including the answer in the clue, which is a no-no. But I guess there's no other way to clue Nimes that wouldn't be way too obscure.

We could ask Andy Kravis, but my guess is that the N?ILS??ON parallel was either intentional for balance or more likely he had been experimenting with 9 letter triple stacks and one was an earlier version of the other.

I've never made a triple or quad stack puzzle but I imagine you do them as separate SET PIECES and then sort of glue them together... I know that's how some collaborators work where one person does the top half and the other the bottom.

VAGUEBOOK posts ("I'm so sad but send me good vibes but I can't tell you why because I don't want to jinx it..."), like pictures of food, are things that trigger my unfriending instincts!

I still struggle mightily with Friday/Saturday puzzles, so while this was a DNF, I got closer than usual.

Had RISKtaker before RISKPRONE, but OLE saved me there.

I couldn't get past the center, though. Had ALLproTEAM and was so convinced it was correct, and couldn't remember TOPCAT to save my life (hePCAT was as close as I got) that I never got a toehold there.

Then, not knowing RIENZI or VAGUEBOOKS at *all* (I wanted VAGUEBaitS instead, doesn't that make ***so*** much more sense?), I ended up with NulLYgONES as the "dimensions without planes". Polygons, octagons, null as zero...I dunno. Sounded good at the time.

Still, the puzzle was fun while it lasted, and it's encouraging to get further each Friday...

Oh, and TITTLE was the best word in the puzzle, hands down. Now I have to figure out how to use it in an everyday sentence. TITTLE alone was worth the price of admission.

@Anonymous 4:34 pm. I guess because there is so much flagrantly distasteful language about women's body parts in the news and social media that BEAVER seems almost quaint in comparison. About the level of "gosh darn it" versus the "F-bomb".

@Stuart, me too on BACHARACH. Still humming. 3-3-4/8 beat, classic BB. Not sure that's his right spelling, but it did fit.I think we are seeing the difference between Cheerful Morning Rex and Grumpy Evening Rex. I enjoyed this puzzle too, but it doesn't seem like quite the outlier OFL describes.Yesterday I said Eewww to RR ice cream, but considering that I love sour cream raisin pie, maybe I should try it again.

No one will ever convince me that VAGUEBOOKS is a word, although it was gettable from the crosses, as was RIENZI. I loved TOPCAT when I was a kid. Loved the clue for NO FLY ZONES, and as @Rex said, the fill was clean with a minimum of old-school crosswordese, but VAGUEBOOKS ruined it for me - it's the first time I've ever seen that sequence of letters together, and to me it's just new-school crosswordese - a word only seen in crosswords, never in real life.

I finished this one in record time for a Friday. Either the NYT puzzles are getting easier or I'm getting better at solving them. My only snag came in the SW corner when I had MADam before MADTV (BEAmER sounded like a mascot's name and I had no idea what the dot on the "i" was called so TITaLE sounded fine). It all started to make sense when I tuned in to MADTV. I presume Key and Peele are comedians from that program, but remain unknown to me - not unlike the crossword term DOOK. There was no theme and thus no enjoyable reward in this puzzle. The cluing was at times clever, but overall the puzzle was rather one-dimensional and disappointingly non-titillating.

No, not easy, but I did it--and no small triumph factor attaches. The west took a while because of that "Win, lose or draw" clue. Turns out they were all simply examples of a VERB. Grr, I hate when they do that. Luckily my medical background gave me EDEMA.

But it was the SE that gave me the fan-tods. First, I fell into the TOmCAT trap; I figured: well, Tom is his name (Jerry's foe, of course), and he IS a cat... And then there was that simple clue "Search," which went from hunT to Seek finally to SIFT. Big inkblot there. Eventually, all the SETPIECES fell into place, but easy? No.

DOD is Kate MARA. @rondo may not agree, but he can be depended upon to mourn yet another OLE without Sven. Liked it. Birdie.

Hey @Fogman! Pay attention. The answer for DOOK has been in the last 2 days' Syndieland comments - not gonna create deja vu all over again. ;-)

Well, I had a great time - when there are so many WOES, it's a real feeling of accomplishment to suss out the answers. Yeah, that VERB made me laugh. Saw lots of vague or mis-directing clues - always gives me the ahas. And then there were the few I knew I knew but couldn't bring up from my brain's basement.

So even with a 2-letter dnf, I'm satisfied. Guessed ToTTLE/RoENZI (and I had the "I" in there first!) And VAGUElOOKS - Naticked by another bib!! RRRR I was picturing emojis depicting the poster's mood. I do not do social media - anyplace where you can "unfriend" someone doesn't seem friendly at all to me. And all that "liking" is "like" another survey. Sheesh. Every time you pick your nose you are handed a survey to get your rating of the results. NOYB

Forgive me Diana, LIW as I'm still recovering from my Sriracha sauce overdose. The fog has lifted, and now I can see the DOOK.

Teedmn 8:11 AM

DOOK was from a puzzle answer of DO OK, (as in "How are they at table tennis?" "They DO OK") which many people including myself read as DOOK. So that is the blog term for words mushed together in the grid which can be misinterpreted.

Yes, another OLE with no mention of his pal Sven. OTHER than that it was a fine puz. My search was also a hunT at first which gave me pauLSIMON, perhaps writing a song? Small inkfest there and with neighboring PlebE before PROLE.

I suppose “Yelberton Abraham ___ “ or “Y.A.___” would skew too old as a clue for TITTLE?

Part of my second home rehab will be when @rondo GETSRIDOF LINOLEUM. And carpet and pad, etc.

No quibble with yeah baby Kate MARA, but also DEEM ERIN Burnett worthy. Will not mention 45d.

It was worth the price of admission jut for the NOFLYZONES clue. Andy seems to be a TOPCAT.

Wheelhouse! Which was good because I had little time to spend on it (looking after grandson, again), but what a nice construction. So many areas of ahas and "nice". ANOUK, NIMES, EDEMA, et al, were gimmes. VAGUE BOOKS was too vague for words, but crosses, and guessing BOOKS, filled it in.